At this point in early summer the last 2 years I’ve been gearing up (literally…) for big trips out West to Colorado and Utah in July. Before heading out West in 2012 I had some open questions – can I handle the long drive? What will it be like at altitude (I’d never been in the Rockies). My very first taste of Colorado-by-4×4 was a pre-FJ Summit trip over Medano Pass to Great Sand Dunes National Park almost 2 years ago.
A gathering of “internet friends” from around the country (DC and Texas, mostly) in Colorado
After a couple-thousand mile drive across the country (including a stop at a sniper school in Texas) I met up with fellow Toyota 4x4ers in Walsenberg, CO. I’d never met these guys before outside of the internet forums, but thankfully they turned out to be awesome dudes (and not axe-murderers).
Medano Pass switchbacks up into the mountains and through recently burned stands of Aspen trees, crossing a few creeks to keep things interesting. We camped at about the mid-point of the trail in a designated spot, getting situated just in time to wait out a passing thunderstorm.
Coming out of Medano pass presents a dramatic change in scenery, going from mountain two-track to sandy series of jukes and banked turns (it is as fun as it sounds…). At the end we were rewarded with views of the tallest natural sand dunes in North America – over 750 feet tall.
Driving end-to-end, the trail would take a couple of hours and was passable by any stock high-clearance 4×4 with low-range, which for us was a perfect warm-up after thousands of highway miles and before the slightly tougher, tighter trails in Ouray.
Cliffs Notes: I miss Colorado, and the adventure of exploring the wide-open space out West. Maybe I’ll figure out a way to get back out there this summer…the wheels are turning in my mind…
great pictures!